The head of PlayStation Studios wants failing games to fail quickly and without significant losses

The failure of individual games is an unavoidable part of business for large corporations like Sony, whose internal studios work on dozens of projects. Hermen Hulst, the head of PlayStation Studios, approaches this philosophically.

In an interview with the Financial Times, he mentioned that he doesn’t want Sony’s teams to only work on “safe” projects. But if a game fails, it’s better for that failure to happen as early as possible to minimize losses.

According to Hulst, after the setback with Concord, Sony began testing games more actively and thoroughly. The corporation now pays more attention to focus groups and encourages studios to learn from each other. Executives also participate in testing, spending hundreds of hours on games nearing release.

Hulst also reminded that not so long ago, Sony announced plans to release at least ten live-service games by March 2026, but some have since been canceled.

“The number [of live-service releases] is not so important. What is important to me is having a diverse set of player experiences and a set of communities,” said Hulst.